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Set up your church: start to finish

Summary

This is the whole setup, in order, from an empty account to your first volunteers training. Each step is a sentence and a link to the full article, so you can follow the path here and open the detail only where you need it. Most churches are up and running within a week.

Who this is for

  • Account Owners setting up a brand-new Safe Pathways account
  • Church Administrators handling onboarding

What you’ll need

Make sure you have:

  • Admin access (the earliest steps are easiest as the Account Owner)
  • Your church details: name, province, mailing address, and a square logo
  • Your safeguarding policy file, in PDF or Word
  • A Canpro SOS account, so you can order Police Checks from inside the platform
  • Planning Center or Rock RMS credentials, if your church uses either

Before you start

The steps below follow the same order as the in-app setup wizard, and that order is deliberate. A couple of steps depend on earlier ones: the province you set in your church profile decides which screening requirements apply, so it comes first, and your policy and your reference and acknowledgement questions should exist before volunteers start, so their sign-off and references work the first time.

You do not have to finish in one sitting. Your Admin Dashboard shows what is done and what is left, so you can stop and pick up where you left off.

Steps to set up your church

1. Set up your church profile

Enter your name, province, contacts, and logo. Province matters most here, because it drives the screening requirements applied to your church, so set it correctly before you assign anything. See Setting up your church profile.

2. Build your admin team

Invite the people who will help run Safe Pathways and give each one the clearance level that fits their job, keeping the broadest access to as few people as possible. See Admin team.

3. Upload your church policy

Add the safeguarding policy your volunteers will read and sign. See Uploading Your Church Policy.

4. Set your acknowledgement questions

Decide what each volunteer agrees to when they sign the policy. See Managing church policy acknowledgement questions.

5. Set your reference questions

Decide what your volunteers’ referees are asked. See Setting Reference Questions.

6. Connect your systems

Connect Canpro SOS so you can order and track Police Checks without leaving Safe Pathways, and connect Planning Center if you want your people to sync in automatically. See Canpro SOS: How to connect Safe Pathways, Planning Center: How to connect Safe Pathways, and, if you use it, Rock RMS.

7. Import your members

Bring people in from Planning Center, Rock, or a spreadsheet. Valid rows import and anything that needs a fix is reported, so a few problem rows never block the batch. See Import members.

8. Bring over past training and screening, if you are switching

If you are moving from another provider, import your volunteers’ prior training and screening history so nobody starts from zero. See Import volunteer history.

9. Assign pathways

Assign each volunteer the pathway that matches their role. This is the step that emails their invitation and starts everything moving, so save it until your policy and questions are ready. See Assigning Pathways.

10. Get yourself trained and screened

If you also serve in a ministry role, set up your own volunteer account and complete training, since an administrator account is not a screened volunteer account. See Administrators: how to get yourself trained and screened.

What happens next

Once pathways are assigned, the automation takes over: reminder emails go out, references are collected, and renewals are flagged before they lapse. From here, your home base is the dashboard, where anyone who needs attention surfaces. See Getting Started: Your Admin Dashboard.

Troubleshooting

I am not sure which step I am on

  • Your Admin Dashboard shows a first-visit checklist of what is done and what is next; use it as your map.

A menu item I need is not showing

  • Some features appear only once they are enabled or once your role allows them. Planning Center and Rock import items appear after the integration is connected, and Settings tabs follow your clearance level.
  • Ask your Account Owner if you think you are missing access you should have.

I want volunteers to start before the policy is ready

  • Set up your policy and your reference and acknowledgement questions first. Without them, volunteers cannot sign off or have references collected, and you will have to chase the gaps later.

Nobody received an email after I imported members

  • That is expected. Importing does not email anyone; invitations send when you assign a pathway.

Notes

  • The order follows the in-app setup wizard; province (in the profile) before pathways, and policy and questions before volunteers, are the parts that genuinely depend on order.
  • You can pause and resume; the Admin Dashboard tracks what is left.
  • Importing people does not send invitations. Assigning a pathway does.
  • If you serve in a ministry role, you need your own volunteer account in addition to your administrator account.

Last reviewed

June 16, 2026